I have asked some friends about what new laptop I should purchase. Their collective answer was the Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop, with 8GB of memory. This is roughly $430-$450 everywhere I have seen.

I have NOT seen this laptop in person.

This laptop will SOLEY be used for employment training videos, PowerPoint projects, various MS Office tasks, and the occasional online random browsing.

Does anyone have any better recommendations of a similar priced and quality laptop?

you're not going to get great quality in a $430-450 Windows laptop.  Windows laptops at that price point today are effectively disposable.

Yes, I'm sure someone will chime in with "but muh 10yo Toshiba was $450 and it still runs strong!"  Hence my emphasis on "at that price point TODAY."

That machine will do all that you require- it has a good screen and Acer has always had good keyboards.

I always make sure to get a matte screen, the glossy screens are hard to see with much light.

if you're over 45 and have presbyopia, a brighter screen helps too.  I chose my current laptop in large part because of how bright the screen can get.

I agree with the disposable aspect. Figure to get about 3 years out of it before moving on to something more capable or operational. I used to buy laptops with this mentality, then moved to Macs. IMO it’s a better experience, and the hardware typically lasts 5+ years. It does come with a premium price tag though, but when amortized over expected useful life, Macs aren’t too much more expensive. Case in point, I have a 2013 iMac that I upgraded to a Fusion drive on the cheap, you’d never know was 8 years old…compared to a 3 year old $400 Dell we bought as a stop-gap for my MIL that takes minutes to startup and hangs on basic tasks.

That laptop should be fine for the items described.  Be aware it will not last though, so start saving pennies for the next one right away.

It won't have something that will affect performance, so maybe get all the specs and look for gaps. Make sure it has Windows 10 home and not the "portable" version which is kneecapped. The battery will absolutely suck.

It won't have a number pad either, so if you are doing lots of numbers for work count on a cheap keyboard to add to it.

That said, I buy laptops in that price range every other year or so, for me or my GF.